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Media Parrots Hamas’ Death Toll Lies — Shows No Interest in Fact-Checking or Accountability

A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
The war in Gaza resumed last week, after Hamas rejected a ceasefire extension that would have required it to release the remaining Israeli hostages — half of whom are now believed to be dead. In response, Israel carried out targeted airstrikes.
Meanwhile, the Iranian regime’s other terror proxy, the Houthis, joined the assault — launching a ballistic missile from Yemen as Hamas also fired rockets from Gaza. The Houthi strike sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians scrambling for shelter early Sunday morning.
On March 18, the Israeli Air Force eliminated multiple senior Hamas leaders, including the head of its interior ministry and the operations chief of its internal security arm. These were significant, surgical hits.
Because these were the IDF’s first major operation since January’s temporary ceasefire, the strikes were bound to make headlines. What’s troubling, however, is how swiftly the media reverted to old habits — once again parroting Hamas’ death tolls without a trace of skepticism or context.
It was a grim rerun of October 2023’s Al-Ahli Hospital debacle, where major news outlets rushed to blame Israel for a blast — later proven to be a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket — that struck a hospital parking lot, not the hospital itself, and killed a fraction of the “500” initially claimed. But Hamas knew it didn’t need facts — it could count on compliant journalists to amplify the lie.
And here we are again.
On Tuesday, headlines across The New York Times, CNN, AP, BBC, The Guardian, TIME, and others all regurgitated the same line: “More than 400 people killed, mostly women and children, in Gaza’s deadliest day since November 7.”
Their source? “Gaza’s Health Ministry.”
A few outlets mumbled, almost apologetically, that this “ministry” is run by Hamas. Even fewer explained that Hamas doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Airstrikes were carried out to target senior Hamas leaders—yet major outlets led with casualty claims from Hamas, without even naming them as the source. When the media erases Hamas’ responsibility and hides their role in this war, they’re not reporting—they’re protecting. pic.twitter.com/pPoxzrtUuH
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 21, 2025
CNN and others even quoted the Palestinian UN envoy, Dr. Riyad Mansour, as he lamented the bloodshed during the “holy month of Ramadan,” insisting that “no one would fight during Ramadan” in his tradition.
Evidently, it’s a fairly recent tradition, given that Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at Israeli cities on May 10, 2021 — squarely during Ramadan, just two days before the month ended.
Gaza’s “Health Ministry” is also the sole source behind this week’s new wave of headlines portraying apocalyptic scenes of carnage, with the death toll reportedly surging past 50,000.
Many anti-Israel biases of the Gaza fatality story are encapsulated in this article citing 50,000 killed. This is willful ignorance on the part of CNN and these journalists. Here is a review of how this article is a gross misrepresentation on many levels: 1/ pic.twitter.com/zAGK5F7eIj
— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) March 23, 2025
Once again, CNN led the pack in conferring legitimacy on Hamas’ numbers, describing the figure as a “grim milestone for a war with no end in sight, as Israel resumes fighting and warns of even tougher days ahead.”
Perhaps anticipating some readers might not take the Hamas-run ministry’s claims at face value, CNN turned to that other unimpeachable source of clarity on Israel — the United Nations. According to the UN, “the majority of deaths are women and children,” though “the true toll could be much higher, with many thousands believed to still be under the rubble.”
Some outlets didn’t even bother attributing the figure to Hamas’ health ministry, as a glance at Google’s top stories reveals headlines painting Israel as recklessly escalating an “expanded offensive,” with little context beyond the suggestion of malice or collective punishment.
The media, once again, appears to have learned nothing. If the Al-Ahli debacle offered any lessons, the breathless, copy-paste coverage of the past week showed they were quickly forgotten.
Some reminders for the journalists whose standards have slipped:
- The Hamas-run health ministry’s casualty counts have been repeatedly exposed as inflated and manipulated. A recent analysis by the Henry Jackson Society found male combatants were misclassified as women and children to skew the ratio.
- Claims that a “majority” of those killed are women and children have been debunked repeatedly.
- Israel continues to drop leaflets, send texts, and urge civilians to evacuate targeted zones. Hamas, meanwhile, orders civilians to stay put — so their deaths can be leveraged as propaganda — while its leaders flee to underground bunkers.
So yes, the war has resumed — and with it, the media’s war on accuracy. Although to be fair, it’s not clear they ever observed a ceasefire to begin with.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Media Parrots Hamas’ Death Toll Lies — Shows No Interest in Fact-Checking or Accountability first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.